The TANF Budget Under federal welfare reform, the federal government provides a block grant to the states known as the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Ohio s TANF cash assistance program is Ohio Works First (OWF). States are required to provide annual funding amounts to meet a required maintenance of effort (MOE) based on their spending levels in the mid 1990s. Regular federal TANF funds to Ohio are about $727 million per year and the state MOE is over $400 million, so that the annual OWF budget is generally about $1.1 billion. The state has not spent the entire amount of the federal block in the last several years, and a surplus is carried over from year to year. The state meets part of the MOE requirement by counting GRF funds used for child care services. Also included in MOE are donations to food banks and child support payments intended for OWF recipients. States have considerable discretion in managing and designing their TANF programs, as long as they meet one of the four purposes of TANF. These purposes are: assisting needy families so that children can be cared for in their own homes; reducing the dependency of needy parents by promoting job preparation, work, and marriage; preventing out of wedlock pregnancies; and encouraging the formation and maintenance of two parent families. 1 Components of TANF Spending OWF is administered by county job and family service departments. The state sets the income eligibility limit for OWF cash assistance at a very low level, just 50 percent of the poverty line. Only families with children are eligible. An adult is subject to a standard lifetime limit on cash assistance of 36 months, with a hardship extension of up to 24 months available in a few instances. Most cases are child only in which the child is living with a grandparent or other relative. The maximum monthly benefit for an individual is $273; for a family of three, it is $473. This is considerably less than the $972 an individual could earn by working 30 hours per week at Ohio s minimum wage rate of $8.10 per hour. Cash assistance is no longer the primary purpose for which TANF funds are used. Federal welfare reform laws envisioned states providing an array of work support services to help recipients find jobs and keep them employed. Over the first decade of the program, OWF caseloads declined, but the state did not make a concerted effort to spend all of its federal TANF grant funds. By 2006, surplus funds grew to over $1 billion. Spending levels increased under the administration of former Governor Ted Strickland, however, as the state embarked on a major expansion of funding for child care, a critical support for low income parents, and designated other funds for special initiatives. Base funding for child care came from the federal child care development funds and associated state match. During the 2009 recession, the state 1
fully spent its TANF resources and received temporary additional funding under the Recovery Act. The largest portion of Ohio s TANF budget remains dedicated to child care. In FY 2015, the state expects to spend $365 million on early childhood programs and $272 million on cash assistance. A significant portion ($72.8 million in SFY 2014) of the TANF budget is transferred to Ohio s share of the federal Title 20 program (Social Security Block Grant), which is a source of flexible funding for human services that counties can utilize. 2 One of the critical components of TANF spending is the Prevention, Retention, and Contingency (PRC) program. PRC is generally provided on a short term basis. Programs and eligibility vary by county in response to local need and philosophy and are limited by available resources. Counties use PRC in two ways: (1) to help families on cash assistance meet their requirements for self sufficiency, and (2) to stabilize needy families who are at risk of needing the cash assistance program. These services range from training to transportation, but they are not sufficiently or consistently provided across Ohio s 88 counties. Before the 2009 recession, annual statewide funding for PRC programs was over $300 million. Cuts were made to the program during the recession, and funding remains far below previous levels. The budgeted amount for FY 2015 is $92 million. The Challenge of Work Requirements Since early 2011, state TANF cash assistance policy has focused on one goal: meeting federal work requirements. Federal policy requires that 90 percent of two parent families and 50 percent of one parent families receiving cash assistance work at least 30 hours per week. A limited number of training or other job readiness activities may count toward this total, but federal rule changes severely limited educational options. Ohio had not met this work requirement for years, and by 2011 potential penalties accumulated to over $200 million. The federal government refused the Kasich administration s request for a waiver in 2011. Since 2011, there has been a single minded focus on meeting the work requirement without providing sufficient resources to clients for transportation or other work supports. This has led to a drastic decline in OWF caseloads, especially for adults. The caseload is now 74 percent child only cases, which means that, for the most part, a child is living with someone other than his or her parent. There is no work requirement for child only cases. There are now less than 120,000 total people served by the program, which includes around 19,000 adults. Overall participation has fallen by more than 115,000 people, or nearly 50 percent, over the four year period depicted in Figure 1. The caseload decline has eased pressure on the TANF budget and should give the state an opportunity to boost benefit levels or reinvest in efforts to increase employment and training opportunities for Ohio s poorest families.
Figure 1 OWF Statewide Caseload Continues to Decline, January, 2011 January, 2015 250,000 200,000 150,000 100,000 Adult Child 50,000 0 Jan 11 Apr 11 Jul 11 Oct 11 Jan 12 Apr 12 Jul 12 Oct 12 Jan 13 Apr 13 Jul 13 Oct 13 Jan 14 Apr 14 Jul 14 Oct 14 Jan 15 Source: Athens County Department of Job and Family Services As of January, 2015, the TANF program is only reaching about 15 percent of its estimated target population of very low income Ohio adults with children in the home. Participation rates vary tremendously among counties, with a high of 43 percent in Athens to less than 1 percent in some rural locations (Table 1). These differences are more a reflection of the philosophies and administrative approaches that are being taken at the county level than of any differences in local economic circumstances. Access to the program is very uneven and may be almost impossible in some locations. The uneven approach contributes to the growing carry over of TANF funding from year to year.
Table 1. Estimated Percentage of Very Low Income Adults Served by OWF, Jan. 2015 Adult OWF Recipients Adults with Children below PERCENT RECEIVING OWF 50% of FPL (est.) OHIO 19,329 125,920 15.4% ADAMS 6 431 1.4% ALLEN 29 1,278 2.3% ASHLAND 14 411 3.4% ASHTABULA 226 1,333 17.0% ATHENS 676 1,570 43.1% AUGLAIZE 3 187 1.6% BELMONT 44 553 8.0% BROWN 20 428 4.7% BUTLER 167 3,634 4.6% CARROLL 17 316 5.4% CHAMPAIGN 30 386 7.8% CLARK 116 1,810 6.4% CLERMONT 117 1,365 8.6% CLINTON 9 474 1.9% COLUMBIANA 158 962 16.4% COSHOCTON 66 359 18.4% CRAWFORD 33 500 6.6% CUYAHOGA 2,453 16,581 14.8% DARKE 27 339 8.0% DEFIANCE/PAULDING 4 559 0.7% DELAWARE 75 538 13.9% ERIE 8 659 1.2% FAIRFIELD 231 1,068 21.6% FAYETTE 33 314 10.5% FRANKLIN 2,115 15,680 13.5% FULTON - 357 0.0% GALLIA 108 330 32.7% GEAUGA 11 443 2.5% GREENE 125 1,711 7.3% GUERNSEY 37 609 6.1% HAMILTON 2,879 10,904 26.4% HANCOCK 3 716 0.4% HARDIN 8 387 2.1% HARRISON 41 165 24.9%
HENRY 1 213 0.5% HIGHLAND 64 497 12.9% HOLMES 11 281 3.9% HURON 39 576 6.8% JACKSON 80 597 13.4% JEFFERSON 158 818 19.3% KNOX 89 531 16.8% LAKE 347 1,486 23.3% LAWRENCE 33 587 5.6% LICKING 107 1,299 8.2% LOGAN 104 528 19.7% LORAIN 362 3,020 12.0% LUCAS 1,171 6,545 17.9% MADISON 36 246 14.6% MAHONING 1,416 2,520 56.2% MARION 22 627 3.5% MEDINA 85 793 10.7% MEIGS 127 321 39.5% MERCER 12 228 5.3% MIAMI 42 734 5.7% MONROE 8 175 4.6% MONTGOMERY 1,020 6,387 16.0% MORGAN 4 217 1.8% MORROW 13 318 4.1% MUSKINGUM 204 946 21.6% NOBLE 3 76 3.9% OTTAWA 58 226 25.6% PERRY 64 512 12.5% PICKAWAY 35 437 8.0% PIKE 95 471 20.2% PORTAGE 100 1,957 5.1% PREBLE 10 365 2.7% PUTNAM 6 157 3.8% RICHLAND 333 1,184 28.1% SANDUSKY 25 612 4.1% SCIOTO 138 978 14.1% SENECA 5 623 0.8% SHELBY 6 242 2.5% SOUTH CENTRAL* 712 1,281 55.6%
STARK 768 3,578 21.5% SUMMIT 675 5,789 11.7% TRUMBULL 502 2,343 21.4% TUSCARAWAS 44 785 5.6% UNION 27 222 12.2% VAN WERT 30 258 11.6% WARREN 64 828 7.7% WASHINGTON 2 542 0.4% WAYNE 138 830 16.6% WILLIAMS 20 330 6.1% WOOD 20 1,449 1.4% WYANDOT 6 157 3.8% Sources: ODJFS PAMS Report, CY 2014, ACS, S1701: POVERTY STATUS IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS, 2009 2013, IPUMS, 2009 2012 *Note: South Central includes Hocking, Ross, and Vinton counties. 1 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Overview, www.hhs.gov 2 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Executive Budget Submission, SFY 2016 2017. Updated 3/2/2015.